Monthly Archives: August 2009

We got a tip last week in the newsroom that the U.S.
Navy, in some way, shape or form, was implementing some sort of new
drinking policy for its service members.

Vague, yes. So in an effort to get to the bottom of the story,
Ed Friedrich, our military and transportation reporter, made some
calls to local public affairs officers. None of them had heard of
any such “policy,” being implemented.

I revisited the tipster, who said it had something to do with
“0-0-1-3.” And then I consulted Google.

Taking the plunge off of Bremerton’s two spans across
Port Washington Narrows is well established as a dangerous,
life-threatening endeavor. But should you survive it, it
could also result in a trip to the
clink.

On Monday, an 18-year-old Bothel man was arrested by police for
jumping off the Manette Bridge. A 911 caller said he jumped from
the “lower part,” of the bridge closer to Manette, just before 5
p.m.

Police found him in a parked car nearby. He looked like the
suspected jumper, and, the ultimate evidence: He was “soaking wet,”
police said.

The man said he was not suicidal nor injured, just a “thrill
seeker,” who’d done similar jumps in Maui, Hawaii recently. Police
didn’t appreciate his thrill seeking, and took him to the Kitsap
County jail for a relatively unused Bremerton
Municipal Code known as “mischief on bridges.” They set his
bail at $5,000.

Mischief on bridges, it turns out, is a misdemeanor punishable
by up to 90 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

“It makes sense from a public safety perspective, that we don’t
want thrill seekers jumping off our bridges,” said Bremerton
Assistant City Attorney Ken Bagwell, who could recall one other
case of such mischief. “It’s not safe.”

Commenter nsultan pointed out
that I used the phrase “considerably larger” when writing about how
much bigger the Bremerton Municipal Court caseload is when compared
to fellow its fellow Kitsap cities of Port Orchard, Bainbridge
Island and Poulsbo.

As we’ve seen before, detectives with our two local drug
task forces — the county’s West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team
and Bremerton’s Special Operations Group — often follow cases well
out of their immediate areas of jurisdiction.

Last week, WestNET detectives ventured to Tacoma (their force, I
will add, now includes representatives from Pierce County) for an
unusual drug bust: a marijuana grow operation and distribution
network allegedly involving a Tacoma lawyer.

The attorney, 54, was arrested Thursday along with four other
people (two of them from Gig Harbor). Detectives raided the
attorney’s office, on the 3700 block of South 12th street, and
apparently found 82 marijuana plans, growing and packaging
equipment, record keeping of drug sales and more than seven ounces
of processed marijuana.

The task force’s Washington State Patrol-based sergeant, Carlos
Rodriguez, told the Tacoma News Tribune that an informant last
February led them to the suspected grow.

Pierce County prosecutors have the next move, and are
considering formal charges in the case.

The study was released at a meeting of the American Chemical
Society a few weeks back. It made me go after the numbers of
cocaine users in this country to determine if the drug was indeed
that ubiquitous. The U.S. Office of Drug Control
Policy says about 2 million Americans used Cocaine in 2007.

Those 2 million Americans, then, must go through a lot of bills
in snorting the drug. Why? Less than one percent of the American
population (around 300 million) used coke. But 90 percent of our
currency had the stimulant on its banknotes.

Interestingly, notes the
Scientific American, there was more residue on $5s, $10s, and
$20s than on $1s and $100s.

Mary Heacock and her family have enjoyed the benefits of
thickly-built walls in their Hood Canal Drive home for the past
decade in the form of lower heating and cooling costs.

On early Friday morning, however, they learned a different
benefit of such walls.

An errant vehicle took a turn down their driveway, near the
road’s intersection with NE Cliffside Road, around 3:45 a.m. and
struck the side of their home.

The car, as evidenced by the Heacock’s security video, didn’t
penetrate its walls. In fact, it more or less bounced off the
house.

“We never thought we’d have to fend off invading cars,” Heacock
said.

The Heacock’s home was built with Quad-Lock walls consisting of two
inches of foam on each side of a hearty foot of concrete. Heacock
said that while they saw lights outside and “the whole
neighborhood” heard the car, they didn’t feel it inside.

A 24-year-old man driving the home was taken to Harrison Medical
Center with unknown injuries, according to North Kitsap Fire and
Rescue. No one else was injured.

The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the crash,
but details weren’t made available Friday afternoon.

Heacock speculates that with traditional walls, the car might
have gone through the home and even hit a neighbor’s residence.

“Had this been stick construction, we absolutely would have lost
our house today,” she said.

For the first time, a man deemed a sexually violent
predator by the state may be released.

The Special Commitment Center for sex offenders on McNeil Island
houses about 300 men. In 18 years, none have been released.

Until now.

Gary E. Cherry, 50, could go home. Three times convicted of
rape, the Shelton man will be released “without restriction if a
Mason County Superior Court hearing goes his way,” said Dean Byrd,
Mason County chief deputy. His petition for release will be held at
8:30 a.m. Sept. 1 before Mason County Superior Court Judge Amber
Finlay.

Mason County Commissioner and state senator Tim Sheldon is none
too pleased with such a release. Here’s Sheldon’s full
statement: